Going Public: Projects by Höweler + Yoon

Going Public

The public realm is not a default condition but rather something that is actively produced, designed, and constructed. The built environment can transform how we identify ourselves as part of a collective society, how we form common values and common ground, and how the notion of “the public” is constituted—to design for the public realm is also to design a public through that realm. It is a site of overlapping constituencies, interests, and stakeholders that create a layered set of complex public and private interests constantly in negotiation. As artists, architects, and urbanists, how do we design a more sustainable and just future one project at a time?

In this lecture, J. Meejin Yoon will present cultural, institutional, residential, and civic projects by Höweler + Yoon that address the public realm as a site of negotiation and formation, where placemaking, activation, memory and design intersect to produce place and the “urban alchemy” of the contemporary city. Yoon will also share how the design-driven practice engages with technology, culture, and society to inform memorials, public spaces, architecture, and urbanism across a range of scales.

J. Meejin Yoon, AIA, FAAR is an architect, designer, and educator. She is the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, and formerly Head of the Department of Architecture at MIT. Yoon is co-founding partner of Höweler + Yoon Architecture. Notable and current projects include the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers and the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia, the Collier Memorial and MIT Museum at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Moongate Bridge in Shanghai, China. Yoon’s design research investigates the intersections between architecture, technology, and public space. As an educator, she is committed to advancing pedagogy, research, and practice to expand new knowledge and imaginaries across fields and disciplines.

The Distinguished Artist Series is organized collaboratively by Mount Holyoke’s Weissman Center for Leadership and the InterArts Council. This engaging program reflects the center's support of public presentations by scholars, artists, writers, and practitioners who connect the academic work of the college with the public sphere.